SaiPa has signed a two-year contract with striker Henri Nikkanen.
22:01•Updated 22:27
SaiPa, who leads the ice hockey SM league, is 23 years old Henri Nikkanen have signed a two-year contract. The nearly two-meter-tall forward has played in North America for the last few years.
Nikkanen was a contract player with the Winnipeg Jets, but the club terminated the Finnish contract earlier this week. Nikkanen couldn’t play in the NHL, but in the AHL he managed to play in 140 regular season games, scoring 13+19=32 power points.
– It’s great that we get a domestic player in yellow and black who has experience both in the League and in North America. The hard-working center forward also brings competition to our attacking side. I am very pleased that we reached an agreement with Henri, which will also continue next season, Liiga-SaiPa sports director Harri Aho commented in the announcement.
Nikkanen left for North America from the Pelicans. In his best league season 2020–2021, Nikkanen scored 7+13=20 power points in 47 matches in Jukurei’s shirt. Nikkanen signed a three-year contract with the Jets in the spring of 2022.
According to SaiPa, Nikkanen will travel to Finland next week.